


A Showman Through and Through

by noblewriting



Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017), Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Genre: no shippiness but a good deal of Lumiere being an overdramatic little shit, young!Adam, young!Lumiere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 22:49:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10581102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblewriting/pseuds/noblewriting
Summary: Lumiere notices the Prince right away. In his first few days at the castle, he's only met the Prince's mother once, and the Prince's father all too much, but he hasn't seen the Prince until he hears a rustle behind the curtains and peers around to see a small face. Lumiere intended only to come to the library to pick up a recipe book, but now his plans have changed.





	

Lumiere notices the Prince right away. In his first few days at the castle, he's only met the Prince's mother once—charming lady, full of life—and the Prince's father all too much ("you there! _boy_! stop your flouncing"), but he hasn't seen the Prince until he hears a rustle behind the curtains and peers around to see a small face. Lumiere intended only to come to the library to pick up a recipe book, but now his plans have changed.

He pretends not to notice. Nonchalantly, he struts to a shelf, and carelessly takes off two, then three small books. He balances them in his hands, making a great show of weighing their content and examining their spines. He flutters the pages of one, and shakes another as if he expects the print to fall out. Hush—quick—one giggle, behind the curtain. Aha! An audience.

He starts sliding the three books around his hands, using tricks he learned from a Parisian street performer to trick them into moving from one arm to the other without stopping. He shuffles them, then opens all three at once in his hands, like a giant sheaf of cards with covers and spines and all too many pages. Pretending to read from the three books at once, his eyes and face making a great show of his scholarly attention, he moves toward a table, ignoring the chair obviously in his way. A gasp from behind the curtain! he is sure to trip—but Lumiere has watched street performers, and knows the craft of the artful flail.

With a graceful maneuver he recovers (the curtain giggles as he gestures to the sky in triumph), and launches his books. In a great show of panic, he lets them go flying above his head; he pretends despair that he will never get them back again, emotes terror that they will be destroyed in their landing. The curtain is rustling in excitement— _little mischief-maker wants to see a footman get in trouble for ruining a library_ , thinks Lumiere—but he's timed it right, and they arc back into his hands before the tragedy can happen, and then he is juggling with them, as casually as if this is what he meant to do all along. He tosses them up, and catches them back, and keep them going in a steady circle as he wanders over to the recipe book section and makes his choice. The juggling books slap to the floor— _bam bam bam_ —and the showman is quiet, back to being a footman with a recipe book, nothing worth noting besides the dramatic motion he uses to step over his dropped props and twirl to the door. He is about to go; but something pauses him. He stops and twirls again, and again, and again, great balletic jumps that are too big for life; the curtain quivers, then whips aside as Lumiere throws it open to reveal the boy crouched down inside its depths. Lumiere beams at him and bows. The boy laughs and applauds.

"Will you show me how to juggle?" says the Prince.

"Only if you will show me how fast you can eat treacle tart," says Lumiere. "Mrs. Potts has made some and I have no skill in eating it myself."

And, holding hands, the boy and his footman depart to the kitchen.


End file.
